Costly, fragile, volatile, dangerous, and hazardous objects which are trucked, shipped, or mailed over distances are often subject to rough handling which may include dropping, kicking, tossing, general mishandling by persons, or numerous other abuses. These incidents typically occur when the objects are no longer under the control of the person who packaged them.
Various methods and apparatuses for protecting delicate, valuable, and breakable objects are generally known. These are traditionally referred to as packaging materials. These packaging materials often take the form of bubble-wrap, foam peanuts, blocks, and/or foam padding. Traditionally, for example, an extremely fragile item which is desired to be shipped to a remote location will be “double-boxed”. This means the object itself is padded and snugly packaged inside an inner box. The inner box is then in tum wrapped snugly with additional packing material, and thereafter stuffed into a larger outer box. With double-boxing, the fragile objects receive improved protection from crushing forces, but remain vulnerable to damage due to shock forces which are experienced by the package. If the package is dropped during transit, the object's internal structure may be damaged through the sudden deceleration which is well known and understood as a shock force.
Since conventional packaging materials and methods often fail to prevent damage to shipped objects which result from a shock force, there is thus a present need for a method and apparatus which greatly reduces the likelihood of damage occurring to shipped objects.